G.K. Chesterton in his 1908 book,  ORTHODOXY, said, "You may alter the place to which you are going; but you cannot alter the place from which you have come."

Rev. David W. Hall of the Calvin Institute in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, quotes Chesterton approvingly in his hot-off-the-press  book, THE ARROGANCE OF THE MODERN: HISTORICAL THEOLOGY HELD IN CONTEMPT (Oak Ridge, Tennessee,  Calvin Institute , 1997, paperback, 308 pages, $19.95). Indeed, Chesterton's words could serve as the organizing principle of Hall's magisterial  "apology for the usefulness of history...a defense of what has gone before" (Preface, 
p. 1).

The book is unabashedly and always about religion. It suggests that followers of any historical religion train themselves to reject Henry Ford's dictum, "History is bunk!" Nor should Christians permit  themselves to call one another by half-understood names such as "Pelagians" or "Semi-Pelagians" or "Arminians." (If you do not believe that this happens, pick at random any ten American "religious" internet sites. )  David Hall does not want Christians to call one another by any bad names at all.  But if one  is going to stigmatize anyway, then at the very least she should get her history straight before asserting, say , that Pelagius was an Englishman.

I count 16 chapters in THE ARROGANCE OF THE MODERN (the author does not number them). But one chapter, number 14 by my count, is a small gem called "A Brief Tutorial on the Value of Religion for Politics."  In it David Hall makes a case that a line of thought leads from Exodus 18 to the American "federal-republican structure" of government. Moses reacted to the absolute monarchies all about him by rooting leadership in a sizable body of trustworthy leaders who hated graft and provided different levels for dealing with problems ranging from the more concrete to the more general. The New Testament is shot through with images based on contemporary Greek civic life in a 'polis.'  The world's best government (the U.S.A.) is ultimately  based on God's revelations, the author argues.

Early Christian leaders prayed for secular leaders. Tertullian saucily told pagan authorities that "Caesar is more ours than yours because our God appointed him!" A line of religious dialog leads from St. Ambrose through Magna Carta's personal liberties and restrictions on Government to the modern age: a line subordinating secular rulers to transcendent standards of good and evil.

David Hall sees Gutenberg and the ferment of literacy, Reformation and Counter-Reformation all compelling political leaders to apply Scripture to social reality in an older republican, even democratic, spirit. Doctrines were proposed and debated about when a ruler and his regime cease to be legitimate and what subjects were morally authorized to do in such a situation, including revolting.

To John Calvin no man has authority over another except on God's terms and in delegation of God's absolute power and majesty. Civil rulers exercise a most holy office, serving as God's deputies. Religion is later invoked in the Mayflower Compact. A growing body of Christian thinkers taught people to distrust unlimited political power.  Thus the stage was set for the U.S. Constitution with its ethos (both religious and secular) "of skepticism about human ability." A Constitution should have fixed principles and the people's freedom was guaranteed by those principles.

Hall argues that Scripture itself warrants a division of labor between  Church and State. But Scripture does not warrant "a total divorce of faith and politics."  During the American Civil War James A. Lyon argued that far from being diametrically opposed, "man's true temporal interest and his eternal welfare...are...in a certain sense identical." Lyon and other 19th century thinkers called for "a union of virtue and politics."  They judged that the way to create a virtuous state was to create first a virtuous family, then a second virtuous family, then many more virtuous families in constant dialog with one another.  When good religion prospers, a good state is a by-product.

David W. Hall and his colleagues of Oak Ridge's Calvin Institute also show how the internet can be a megaphone for  a very small  band of colleagues in search of wisdom.  Download their web page at http://www.capo.org and judge for yourself.  You will be led to view a serious scholarly journal.  You will also find a weekly popular journal of outrage and opinion.  Plus sermons.  Plus reader reactions.  And all this from the edge of Appalachia.  If a tiny community in Oak Ridge can produce articles, books, essays, journals and editorials of such high quality and frequency, then may their example also inspire similar outpourings of sense and wit from Hendersonville, Asheville, Black Mountain and Montreat.

-OOO-

for Asheville TRIBUNE